Reserve Bank of Australia Cautions Australian Internauts about a Phishing …

Computerworld.com.au reported on 11th November 2013 stating that The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) or the Central Bank of Australia is urging Australians to be wary of a phishing email scam, which is currently targeting them on the Internet.

The fake email addresses the recipient as “Dear Customer’ and reads as “We (referring to RBA) are informing you today that we have received a report from your bank with the following message ‘Someone with IP address “216.148.24.18” tried to access your personal account”. Hence, as a security measure we have locked access to your account until you confirm your details. Once your details are confirmed, your bank will be notified and the system will automatically remove restrictions on your account. Please Click here (hyperlinked) to confirm your personal details and the process will be effective immediately.

The email ends on behalf of ‘Phillip Lowe’ who is described as the ‘Security Advisor Department’.

Computerworld.com.au published a statement quoting a comment on the ongoing scam email by RBA Spokeswoman as “people should contact their bank “straight away” if they receive one of the (abovementioned) emails. This is a scam and they should not interact with the website at all and scammers often use the details and logo of RBA to make their emails look more realistic. It is important to remember that RBA will never ask you for any personal details to transfer personal funds into an account or ask for a fee to allow money to be transferred in or out of Australia.”

Officials investigating the ongoing phishing email campaign comment that there is a surge in phishing over the Internet due to the phishing email campaigns of the abovementioned types.

Moreover, it is not just the popularity and creditability of RBA that has been exploited by cyber crooks across the globe, security experts’ comment. This is because, back in November 2012, phishing email purporting to be from Reserve Bank of India (RBI) or Central Bank of India were intercepted which as accords to security researchers informed all customers of Indian banks to update their account details to accommodate a new security system.